Muslims in Eastbourne

In recent posts, I've been concentrating on Eastbourne's origins as a Victorian holiday resort. But I don't want to lose touch with more contemporary developments.  One such is the increasing diversity of the people who live in the town.   This is reflected in the number of Muslims in the local population.  And the existence of a mosque where they can worship.  

I've found a pamphlet with a study of this mosque and the people who meet and pray at it.  It's called "The History of Eastbourne Mosque Community - East Sussex Muslims - 1995 to 2013".  Its author is Sevket Hylton Akyildiz, who is a post-doctorate research associate at SOAS.  The study covers census data on the Muslim population in the town and wider region.  It then presents information about the mosque itself and the people who attend it.

Unsurprisingly, Eastbourne did not attract large numbers of Muslims during previous waves of immigration.  Those new arrivals made for cities or industrial centres where the work was.  It is the case that Eastbourne's hotel and catering sector employed immigrants, particularly for work whose conditions did not suit local people.  But these workers tended to come from Mediterranean countries - such as Cyprus, Portugal and Spain.  

That said, from 1960 onwards, there were some Muslims living in the town.  Bangladeshis ran Indian restaurants, and brought over chefs and waiters from their country.  The children of wealthy Arabs, Africans and Iranians attended private schools.  And students from Gulf Arab states studied English at the town's language schools.  

The number of Muslims settling in the town increased in the 1990s.  Government policy was to disperse refugees and other immigrants more evenly across the country.  International events, for example the break-up of former Yugoslavia, as well as instability and conflict in other regions, increased the number of Muslims heading for the UK, and the range of countries from which they were either fleeing or relocating.  But even then, the numbers finishing up in Eastbourne remained low, and the increase over time was steady, not dramatic.  

It was about this time that a place for prayer was first established, above an Indian restaurant.  Prior to this, worshippers travelled to Brighton, where a mosque had been established in a converted nursery on Dyke Road some twenty years before.  Or they went to London.  

In 1995, some local Muslims purchased a building in Ashford Square, near the railway, which they converted into a Sunni mosque.  The property had previously been used as a social club by the South Eastern Electricity Board.   Those behind the original purchase (and actually the running of the Mosque till this day) comprised local Palestinians, Mauritians and Bangladeshis.  There were no wealthy overseas patrons or donors.  Nor any external ideological influence seeking to set a theological or political agenda.  All fundraising was local. And, interestingly, the biggest provider of funds was an Iranian woman (therefore Shia) who never used the mosque or involved herself in its management.  

As for those using the building, they come from all across the town and beyond, and are of varying heritage and socio-economic background.  Where once the Muslim community in the town was made up primarily of South Asians, there are now Algerians, Palestinians, Iraqis, Moroccans, Egyptians, Libyans and many others.  

After ten years of use, the mosque became too small to accommodate its growing numbers of users.  The management sought permission to knock  the original building down and construct a new one.  The local community's concerns about these plans - the noise from building, impact on parking - were predictable, and the application was rejected.  Those at the mosque then worked hard with wider community groups to address concerns and in due course a new application -  actually for a bigger building - was submitted and approved.  Building started in 2016, but the study ends before its completion.  I've not visited the new mosque myself, but the photographs I've seen suggest if nothing else a big improvement on the building it replaced.  

So where does this leave us?

The modest presence of Muslims in the town, and their mosque, tells us how far Eastbourne has come in recent times. But people from overseas have settled in the town to work for many years.  The Greek Cypriots are one example.  The Spanish another.  There is a bigger story to tell.  We'll return to this in future posts.

The Fortnight in September - R C Sherrif

In recent posts, I've been looking at some academic papers which analyse Eastbourne and other resorts along the Sussex coast.  I think I'm starting to get a better understanding now of the big national shifts that influenced the direction these towns took at various stages in their history.  

The first such shift is the emergence of the idea of a holiday by the sea.  The idea was made possible by wealth created during the industrial revolution.  People now had more disposable income, and the free time, to take such holidays.  It was this idea which brought Eastbourne into being in the first place. 

The second is the arrival of the railway.  People could now get to the coast quickly and easily.  This also affected the way towns like Eastbourne were organized, with their populations concentrated around the station.  Wealthier people could build new villas a little further out.  Some commuted to London. 

The third is the shift in the main selling point of these seaside holidays.  They were no longer primarily about health, although that remained part of it.  Visitors expected entertainment.  Hence in Eastbourne the pier was built, the bandstand, the parks and baths. But the permanent residents were keen to maintain the town's appearance - and its tone – and not fund things of no apparent benefit to themselves.  Tensions arose.   

Finally, the bus appeared, as an alternative, more flexible means of transport.  Now working people could live further from their place of employment.  In due course, the motor car came too, giving wealthy motorists even greater independence.  Towns became less concentrated around the station.  Housing estates spread over adjoining farmland and countryside.  

It happens that all these big shifts are reflected in some way in the pages of one of the books on my summer reading list - "The Fortnight in September", a novel by "Journey's End" dramatist R C Sherrif.  For those unfamiliar with it, the novel details the preparations of a South London family for their eagerly-anticipated annual trip to Bognor. It goes on to explore the degree to which the subsequent fortnight meets their various expectations of it.  Published in 1931, you'd be hard-pressed to find a more richly observed account of the holidays taken during that period. 

The shifts are reflected in the social standing of the Stevens family, where they live, what they do for a living.  They are reflected in the account of the holiday itself, where the family stay, what they do.  And finally, they are seen in the changes the family see around them, as Bognor expands, and the effects of buses and cars are seen. 

The father of the family, Mr Stevens, works as an invoice clerk in a warehouse in the city.  He commutes by train from his terraced house in Dulwich.  The family home backs on to the railway embankment.  In the garden, and in those around and on both sides of the track, survive gnarled old apple trees.  The housing estate, and the railway track which runs through it, are built on the site of what would once have been a country orchard.  Mr Stevens is one of the new lower-middle class, house-proud in a recently built suburb, with sufficient time and money to take his family on an annual holiday by the coast.   

For the fortnight itself, the family stay loyal to the ageing landlady of a fading guest house, on a street set back from the sea.  They eagerly anticipate the healthy colour they will achieve after a few days spent in the sun and the sea air.  But that's only part of it.  They are here for the bathing and joining the crowds on seaside walks along the prom. They watch the Pierrots and the minstrels.  They listen to the military band. 

Throughout the pages, however, we pick up that Bognor is changing, as is the countryside about.  The fields just outside the town, where Mr Stevens used to take his country walks, are now turning into building sites.  (But he can now take the bus further out, to the South Downs).  The low point of their holiday is the reluctant visit they make for tea in the newly built villa of an important customer of Mr Stevens' firm.  The family observe its sterile, bare garden, its opulent, joyless rooms.  And the disdain of the customer's wife for holiday makers in general and the activities they get up to.

None of this dry observation above explains the appeal of the book to the many who have read it.  It was a bestseller on publication.  It remains popular to this day.  It's something about the honest decency of the Stevens family I think.  The achievement of the writing is to make us really care whether the holiday works out for them.